You would have to be living under a rock to be unaware of the fact that the Obama administration is beating the drums of war against Iran.

Here are seven big reasons people should be VERY wary of any and all statements that about how Iran is “asking for it” . . . .

(1) “WMD?” Haven’t we see this movie before? It is unbelievable that, even after the fiasco of U.S. aggressive war against Iraq based on false accusations of weapons of mass destruction development, a U.S. administration has the audacity to lead the country to war again based on similar tenuous accusations.

(3) “It’s the oil, stupid!” The watchword of the successful Clinton campaign team in 1992 was, “It’s the economy, stupid!” Similarly, anyone watching Mideast affairs should condition themselves to cut through the excuses (weapons, elections, diplomacy) and face the central importance of oil. How do you feel about being lied to so that the U.S. can go to war for oil?

(4) Zero sum military deployment. The remaining U.S. forces in Iraq are on the verge of withdrawal, and yet the Obama administration is hastening to install a big new contingent of U.S. troops in Kuwait. It’s as if it is a mathematical impossibility to actually achieve a net reduction in U.S. forces in the region! Similarly, the pressure is mounting to draw down forces in Afghanistan. Perhaps this is why the Obama administration thinks it must find its next major target for U.S. troop deployment.

(5) You can’t let Israel do your dirty work. A major component of the current aggressive U.S. posture toward Iran is the premise that the U.S. won’t really have to do the bulk of the activity, because Israel will do the “unpleasant” acts that we don’t want to take responsibility for. In the first place, such an approach is morally bankrupt; in the second place, it is naive: be assured that the U.S. will be involved massively once hostilities begin.

(6) Iranian people are people, too. One of the most pathetic consequences of the U.S.-Iranian rift in recent years and the regime of sanctions has been the demonization of the Iranian people as extremist Islamists who only wear black and are part of an axis of evil. No one should listen for a moment to war talk against Iran without taking the time to use film, literature, music, and the other arts as a window into the tremendous human connections that are possible between the people of the U.S. and the people of Iran.

(7) If only it weren’t for the hostage crisis…. Most of the people of my generation (50+) have clear memories of the 1979 hostage crisis, when radical Iranian students held Americans hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. However, we should all put that crisis in the perspective of an earlier, larger crisis. I once heard Stephen Kinzer talk about an Iranian friend who said to him, “We held your diplomats hostage? You came to Iran in 1953 and held our entire country hostage!” (For more on that, see the story of the overthrow of Mosadegh by the CIA …. )

To be continued . . . .

Join others who want to raise awareness of the need to resist U.S. aggression toward Iran by tweeting every Friday with the #NoIranWar hashtag!